


Spy Arashi: Humble Beginnings

by coolohoh



Category: Arashi (Band)
Genre: Chaptered, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-05-30
Updated: 2014-10-29
Packaged: 2018-09-23 13:14:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 20,667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9658991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coolohoh/pseuds/coolohoh
Summary: What would happen if our five stormy boys are not idols? What would happen if JE itself is not an entertainment agency, but a spy agency instead? Come, find out with me!





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> My very first chaptered fanfic. Currently in hiatus.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There! I've FINALLY done it! A work that took over two years in the making, and its still not completed! Hopefully I'll be erm, more motivated to write now that I've started posting. Since the Prologue is so short, I'll be posting it together with Chapter 1! Enjoy!

Sakurai Sho had just finished sorting out some paper work in his office. He had finished his work for the day at the hospital and was trying to tidy his desk. Most of it were journal papers that caught his eye, he had mass downloaded the papers and printed them out, much to the chagrin of his environmentally friendly co-worker. Now as he was sorting through the stacks upon stacks of unread papers, he wished he had listened to his co-worker's advise and gone paperless instead. In the end Sho gave up trying to sort the papers by any sort of category, and decided to just dump the whole lot into an empty place in his cabinet. He picked the a few papers from the top of the pile and threw them into his bag pack for reading at home. With his desk finally cleared, Sho sat down on his chair as he heaved a sigh of relief. Taking a sip of water from his mug, Sho eyed the decorations he'd placed on his desktop, under the glass surface. A wave of nostalgia washed over him as his eye caught a photo of five youngsters, standing together with arms over each other's shoulders, grinning from eye to eye. Sho lifted the glass and picked out the photo for a closer examination. The photo was taken 11 years ago, and it always made Sho happy when he thought of the times he'd spent with the other four. He sighed however, when he recalled the events last year that eventually lead to the breakup of the group. Rubbing his eyes before a tear threatened to fall, Sho hastily pushed the photo back under the glass with draining his mug and picking up his bag to head home.

Sho could not help remembering his past throughout the train ride home however. As hard as he tried, his mind constantly wondered back to a time when he was not Dr. Sakurai, but rather Sakurai Sho, the rank 1 agent and proud member of the top Agent group Arashi. As Sho turned the key to his apartment, he wondered if the group will ever be put together again.

 


	2. Aiba Masaki

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What would happen if our five stormy boys are not idols? What would happen if JE itself is not an entertainment agency, but a spy agency instead? Come, find out with me!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How could I have forgotten? Special thanks to [](http://gurajiorasu.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://gurajiorasu.livejournal.com/)**gurajiorasu** and my sis for reading and encouraging me to post the fic! In case you're lost, the story starts off from roughly... 12 years before the incident mentioned in the prologue.

It was a sunny Saturday afternoon, a group of young adults were enjoying a game of basketball in the park. A little boy sat in the shade nearby, watching intently.

The basket ballers thought nothing more of the young boy as they continued on with their game. After the adults left, the shy boy got up from his seat and started practicing basketball on his own, trying to remember the passing, dribbling and faking moves he had seen earlier and executing them against imaginary opponents. The routine repeated itself for several weeks, until one day the basket ballers finally approached the boy, curious as to why he was watching them week on week. They soon learnt that the boy was very interested in basketball, and aspired to become a professional basket baller. Soon, the little boy joined the group in their basketball game weekly.

"Aiba-kun? Why are you crying? Are you alright?" Kimura was in the park for a jog, and was surprised when he saw a familiar figure slumped why the bench in the park, sobbing uncontrollably. Aiba nodded wordlessly. "Come on, you are a big boy already, big boys don’t cry. Tell me what happened." Kimura can still remember the little child who had watched their basketball game intently each Saturday. It has been years since they first met, and each of them had gone busy and stopped their weekly basketball practices, but Aiba had kept in contact with them. He was particularly close to Kimura, treating him like an elder brother. Perhaps it was because Kimura had a soft spot for kids that the other members of SMAP would never be able to understand. Perhaps there was something special about the ever persistent and cheerful Aiba that drew this attention… Either way, both of them have become amazingly close despite the age gap.

Mumbling to himself, Aiba recalled how he had attended the try-outs for the province’s basketball team, only to fall short for the third year in a row. He was already 18, and it was unlikely that he’ll ever get accepted again due to his old age. Kimura sighed. It’s the Aiba he knew alright, ever persistent in pursuing his dreams, only that luck wasn’t quite on his side.

"Hmm… Kimura-kun, what do you do for a living anyway? I’ve never heard you talking about your work before…"

"Ah… I erm… I work in the police force."

"Eh? Kakoii ne! Tell me more about it!’

Aiba-kun was awestruck by the stories and incidents about Kimura’s work at the police force. He silently resolved to enter the police force too like his idol someday.

 

 

It was a hectic day for Kimura. He had just been promoted head the recruitments at the Agency, and the current circumstances at the Agency was not particularly newbie friendly. Fresh threats of terrorist attacks from a group known as the Al-Qaeda combined with fresh memories from the Sarin Gas attack meant that there was a lot of pressuring and questions regarding the safety of Japan. Politicians and military men alike were worried about the countries security, particularly as the Japan Self-Defense Force had been limited to a purely defensive role after War World Two, and high military spending has not been the country’s top priority in a long time. With the increasingly real threat of terrorist fanatics though, the Agency was told to pull their weight and step up on recruitment, training and expansion.

Rapid expansion was a tough task for the Agency though. To ensure that the agents picked were of suitable character and did not pose a security risk, thorough background checks had to be carried out. As with all things though, these background checks took time and manpower, both of which the Agency was short on. This meant that Kimura was constantly busy attending meetings; external meetings with leaders in the police force and military, as well as internal meetings to decide if a particular candidate was suitable for the Agency. On top of it all, he was burdened with the problem of having to vet the examination papers and tasks for their entrance examination. For the first time ever, they had decided to open up the Agency doors to members of the police force in the form of holding an entrance examination, rather than only inviting selected, talented individuals to join their cause. The Agency had never held such a large-scale recruitment exercise before. Even though they were selecting from a group of capable policemen, the demand from the prime minister to increase their manpower by 30% within 3 years still made everyone nervous. The demand was placed shortly after the Sarin Gas attack in '95, and now they were in the last year of their deadline, and still short of a good number of recruits to meet the quota. Sure, Kimura understood the need for more manpower to protect the security of the country, but picking Agents in such haste wasn’t very good for the AGENCY’s security… Not to mention that the current agents were already burdened with various tasks member of the inner cabinet had demanded from them… Kimura sighed as he head to the café downstairs for a late lunch.

"Kimura-kun!" Kimura was jerked out of his thoughts when a tanned young man came bounding up to him.

"Ah, it’s you Aiba-kun" Kimura smiled in spite of himself. It’s hard not to smile around the radiant youth.

"Senpai! Just where in the police force do you work in? How come I barely see you around? Will I ever be able to work with you?" Aiba bustled on and on, he had only met Kimura at work once before in his several years of work in the police force, and recently Kimura had been way too busy to even return Aiba’s messages, so naturally Aiba was very excited to meet the older man.

Kimura sighed and shook his head. After a long pause he finally replied "I’m sorry I haven had time to reply to any of your messages in the recent months, work has not been kind on me. To make up for that I’ll drop you on a hint – I heard there’ll be some kind of recruitment drive around here." With that, Kimura smiled at the puzzled young man and left.

‘Aiba-kun isn’t the smartest guy around, but his passion and determination would surely count for something? Either way, he still has to pass the entrance tests on his own after all’, Kimura thought Although he had broken the rules by letting Aiba know about the recruitment drive, Kimura was certain that the series of merciless test would weed out the bandwagons from those who were true of heart.

'Recruitment drive?' Aiba’s eyes widened in excitement as he thought back on the words of his respected senpai. 'I must make sure I get recruited!’

 


	3. Ninomiya Kazunari

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What would happen if our five stormy boys are not idols? What would happen if JE itself is not an entertainment agency, but a spy agency instead? Come, find out with me!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hahaha, I couldn't wait till Friday to post this... so here goes! Chapter 2!

Ninomiya was a typical geek. He could write codes and programs in C++, python, ruby, java, and was picking up SQL and javascript. He'd started designing his own programs when he was in secondary school, but recently he'd been getting bored of programming work and prefer to blow his time away slaying monsters and doing quests. Gaming was his sole hobby, he knew every single map, monster, and NPC in Dragon Quest, he could recite the names of each player in every team in Fifa World Cup… he had always been satisfied with his games till one day…

Nino had gotten sick of Dragon Quest, he had beaten the game 3 times in a row after gaming for 3 days non-stop. Well it wasn’t like he was forced to do it or anything, he simply wanted to beat his own ‘two days of non-stop gaming’ record. Only that this time round, he finally had gotten enough of his games. He’d woken up after approximately 16 hours of sleep (after his 3 day stint) hungry and disorientated. After fixing himself a quick meal of instant noodles, Nino had sat around in a frustrated daze, wondering what to do next. Three days of non-stop gaming seemed to have taken its toll… he couldn’t bring himself to find anything interesting to play. Final fantasy - he completed them a few times each already… he’d gotten sick of soccer last month… first person shooters didn’t really interest him… Nino tossed his video games one by one to the side… ‘These are all so boring! Gah, maybe I should take a break from gaming…’

Nino switched on his computer and surfed the net for something interesting to do…

"Ten things a geek should know" Nino raised an eyebrow as he read the article out loud. He actually did know most of the stuff listed, but there was something at the end that caught his eye. "How to crack a WiFi password? Wow! Sounds fun!" Nino exclaimed as he clicked on the adjoining links to read up more. The world of cracking security lured Nino in, and Nino found hacking much more exciting and interesting than his video games. He was excited when the wireless receiver he ordered on eBay that had capabilities to inject packets arrived. The ability to packet inject was crucial for cracking WiFi passwords, so Nino had shopped around eBay and bought what was regarded as the 'best WiFi dongle' for hacking into WiFi networks. His successful attempt at cracking all the WiFi networks in the range of his receiver made Nino thirst for more adventure.

Nino soon found himself building his own tools just as a homemade wireless router, but being a smart and quick learner with a solid background in programming, Nino soon found new, illegal grounds to venture into. He started off small, making hacks and bots for his video games (making him lose even more interest in the games, since effort was no longer need to PLAY the game). As he gained knowledge and confidence, Nino began writing more complicated hacks for online video games, and started selling them for real money. VIP hacks, as those were called, helped players bot, train, and level up, and were capable of evading the Game Masters and the game’s security systems. These VIP hacks commanded a high price, and Nino made a handsome sum from his effort.

Nino also begin hacking into websites and databases. At first, it was to find out more information about a particular MMORPG game so that he could find critical information needed for building his hacking bots, but later he started targeting random websites just for kicks. Nino hardly left signs of his intrusion, and even when he did, he merely hide the site's data from view and put up a random joke. He was not interested in doing any permanent damage and having the cops after him after all, he merely wanted to have some fun. When Nino came across someone claiming to be able to hack into a government database, Nino's curiosity was quipped.

Feeling particularly adventurous one day, Nino set about attempting to hack access into the public heath system online database. ‘Blah, that was too easy’ He’d forgotten that since that database was accessible to all the doctors, there are many users and hacking in through a compromised user account was simple enough. Over the course of the next few days, Nino continued to hack into various government databases, before leaving with hardly a trace. Glowing at his success, Ninomiya grew bolder and decided to challenge the Police Force and Army’s shared database. Unlike the other databases he hacked into previously, the Defense Department’s database contains much more sensitive information, and were protected by strong security systems, making hacking in harder, but even more thrilling.

It was 5am in the morning when Nino managed to hack into the system. He had been working since the previous morning, stopping only when he could no longer ignore the growls from his stomach. Thrilled at his success, Nino decided to call it a day. He really had no use of the data, downloading it into his computer would only make his crime even more serious, should he be caught. ‘Maybe I should destroy my computer or something… get rid of the evidence…’ While thinking about what to target next, he fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

Nino woke up when someone shoved him roughly off his bed. ‘What the hell is going on?’ He blinked, and tried to wipe the sleep off his eyes.

‘Your name is Ninomiya Kazunari?’

Nino looked up to see who the intruder was, wondering why someone else was in his house. He was certainly unprepared for what he saw. A fierce, burly man who introduced himself as a plain-clothes police officer was glaring at him, while several more were removing the belongings from his room. His laptops were already gone, and they were in the process of unplugging and shifting out his desktop. The hard disks and CDs/DVDs on his shelf were also missing…

"Oh shit, what have I gotten myself into, this can’t be true! It’s all a dream right… let me go back to sleep! This can’t be…."

"Would you please take a trip down to the police station with us? It would make our job easier if you do not resist."

A sense of dread and doom filled Nino as the police officer snapped a pair of handcuffs on him… ‘Why did this have to happen? Why did I have to fall down this path? What will become of me? I’m now a criminal… I’m a criminal, a criminal…’

The rest of the day went by as a whirl to Nino. He had been dumped in an interrogation room, fired question after question… he had answered the questions truthfully although hesitantly. He had asked for a lawyer but they refused to let him get one… which was weird, he thought there should be some sort of law that give criminals the right to hire lawyers before being forced to speak to the police. Or maybe he was wrong, he didn’t know much about the law and he didn’t quite care either. He just wished he could go back to the days of being the simple gamer he used to be, playing his favourite Dragon Quest. After an entire day of questioning, Nino was locked unceremoniously in a small cell. Nino looked around the small, dark cell where he was to spend the night. ‘Great, so now they’re gonna leave me all alone… at least can you tell me what will become of me?’

They seemed to have forgotten about him the next day. Apart from serving his meals, no one else came to disturb him. Nino waited. He waiting for something to happen, for someone to tell him what will happen next, for anything to happen at all…

Kimura was slumped in his chair, deep in thought. He had gone through the case notes a million times, ran through the facts over and over in his head… but still he could not make up his mind. Finally letting out a long sigh, he pressed the intercom button. "I will speak to the boy myself."

In the back of the car, Kimura’s thoughts once again drifted back to the peculiar case. The boy was undoubtedly a genius. At 19, he had managed to hacked into just about ALL the government databases in the country. He had heard tales of boys as young as 10 being expert hackers…. But those are really exceptional cases. Still, the young man had a lot of potential in him, plus thus far, all evidence show that the boy had really no ill intentions. No one paid him to do the job, he did not mess up the database… heck, he didn’t even keep any of the data… they couldn’t be sure if he even looked through the data in the sites. ‘Just what the heck did he go through all the effort of hacking in for? For kicks? What kind of person is the youth?’ Kimura was still deep in thoughts when the car reached their holding center.

Meanwhile earlier on in the holding center…

"Oi, you got a visitor, go get changed!" The guard blindfolded and handcuffed Nino before shoving him down the corridor. They weren’t taking any chances. After walking in seemingly infinite loops, Nino ended up in a windowless toilet cubicle. The guard indicated that to Nino that he should take a bath and change into the clothes laid out on the bench and removed the handcuffs. "Don’t even think of trying anything funny. You have 10 minutes, now be quick!"

Nino heaved a sigh of relief when the guard left him alone in the toilet, at least he won’t have someone watching him bathe. Not that he had total privacy though, he winced as he saw the guard staring at him through the translucent glass panel in the door. He quickly stripped himself and started scrubbing. He was quite glad that they finally let him out of his cell, even if its for 10 minutes… or to an even smaller place… plus he really needed the bath, he hadn’t had a bathe for three days already…

Kimura carefully scrutinized the skinny and pale boy in front of him. There was something about this boy that was intriguing to him… the way the boy carefully eyed himself and the surrounding showed a sense of cunningness and diligence… but at the same time, he couldn’t help but feel that he just was an innocent teen who'd wandered a bit too far off the right path.

They talked for a long time. A scared Ninomiya had been reluctant to say much, but he eventually loosened up in the assuring presence of the older man. Kimura learned a lot about Nino that day, how he was always pulling planks in school, till he eventually was expelled. How he lost his friends after getting expelled, and turned to indulge himself in games… his parents were busy with their business overseas and left Nino to the care of his grandparents. After his grandparents passed away, Nino lived all alone, and his parents were too busy to even care what their son was up to.

‘I think he’s just a lost teen, left behind by his parents and slipping through the safety nets of society… I think he can be saved, no, he should be saved. Plus, its just too much of a waste to let a genius go like this. If we don't hire him, who knows which other government or worst still a terrorist group would use him for?!’ Kimura mulled the idea in his head as he finished interviewing the scrawny little boy.

"Are you willing to work for the Agency?"

Nino was released from the holding center and joined the Agency that very day.

 


	4. Matsumoto Jun

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What would happen if our five stormy boys are not idols? What would happen if JE itself is not an entertainment agency, but a spy agency instead? Come, find out with me!

The Matsumoto family is a well-known family among the Japanese government. For generations, various members of the Matsumoto family have held key positions within the Japanese police force.

 

As a child, Matsumoto Jun was a scrawny little boy who enjoyed pulling pranks and cracking jokes. As he grew up however, the burden and expectations of carrying on the Matsumoto name in the police force dawned upon him and he turned into a highly disciplined youth. He studied extremely hard in high school, a complete 180 from his attitude in secondary school. Despite having had good results that could have seen him entering the doors of Keio, Jun decided not to waste time in University studying things that would be of little to no use in his job, and took up a scholarship to enter the police academy instead. Rumors were abound amongst his classmates that Jun only got the scholarship because his  
dad was the Commissioner General, but Jun worked hard and proved his worthiness. His down to earth, caring, although a little stoic attitude also earned him respect amongst his peers. Jun's name quickly came up when the Agency approached the police academy for recommendations of possible recruits. After various discussions between Kimura and the police academy chief, it was finally decided that the Agency will offer Jun a chance to join the Agency once he graduates from the academy.

 

It was a hard decision for Jun. He had grew up believing that he will join the police force like his father, uncles, and grandparents before him, and having offers from both the police force and the Agency placed on his desk confused him. The police force were certainly not happy to have the Agency poach a top officer they painstakingly trained for three years, but had no power to prevent Kimura from hiring their men, thanks to the laws set after the Sarin attack. Instead, they have negotiated with Kimura that the boy be given a choice to choose for himself. In a bid to retain the rare talent, the police force had offered Jun a job he could not refuse - as Superintendent of a fairly large police station in Tokyo - a rank that would take over 5 years for even very outstanding individuals to reach. If Jun accepted the offer, he could well be the youngest Superintendent in the entire police force. The boast up certainly bodes well for Jun's career, as he'd be younger than the rest and have more time and more chance to get promoted. But at the same time, Jun was worried. Japan was a country that valued senior junior relationships, and seniority on the job depended more on age than talent. Although there has been some efforts made to change this phenomenon, the concept was an ancient one and deeply rooted in the Japanese culture. If Jun were to take up the offer, he could expect a lot of animosity from both his seniors and juniors alike. In particular, he was afraid if his subordinates would respect a young chap fresh out of the academy as their superintendent. Jun had proven his worth amongst his peers in the academy, but proving his worth out in the force would be a much harder job, especially if he started way above the others from the very beginning. Jun knew that they would probably pay him lip service, but behind his backs, they treat him with disdain for using his dad's powers to get him promotions. And Jun himself could not be sure if that unprecedented offer was indeed the case.

 

On the other hand, the offer by the Agency did not seem much better. But Jun was worried about the Agency's offer in a different way. His family had worked in the police force for generations, but yet he had never heard about the Agency till Kimura made the offer. It didn't help that citing security concerns, Kimura barely explained what the Agency was about and what his job scope would be. Jun tore at his hair in frustration. As if right on cue, Jun's phone rang. Jun frowned as he looked at the caller ID, or rather, the lack thereof, and pondered whether he should pick the phone up. Finally, Jun took a deep breath and picked up the call.

"Moshi moshi, is this Matsumoto Jun-san?"

"Moshi moshi, yes Matsumoto Jun speaking. May I know who's on the line please?"

"This is Johnny speaking, I'm the Commander-in-Chief of the Agency. So, have you made a decision on whether you'd like to join the Agency yet?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gomen, this is a short chapter, but the chapter length is no way an indication of how important J will be in the story! All our boys will be the main characters!


	5. Sakurai Sho

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What would happen if our five stormy boys are not idols? What would happen if JE itself is not an entertainment agency, but a spy agency instead? Come, find out with me!

Sakurai yawned and leaned back against his chair to stretch his stiff muscles. He had been hunching over the table for several hours trying to perfect his new creation. Although Sakurai had graduated with a degree from medical school, his curiosity knew no bounds. Despite his insane schedule as a medical officer fresh out of the university, he still managed to find time to conduct his experiments. Even if those sessions were reduced to once a month one, Sho was still satisfied. He had recently came across a book on interesting chemistry experiments, and several of them had inspired him into making the ‘cigarettes’ that are piled up in front of him now. There was an array of amazing experiments in the book, but two of them had intrigued him the most. Or rather, he found only those two reactions useful to his job. The first was the termite reaction, a redox reaction that can create extreme heat. However, the use of powders meant that it was quite clumsy to carry around and deploy in missions. Sakurai himself was not a smoker (he's too concerned aver his health to do anything like that), but while watching others smoke in a bar one day, he hit upon the idea of packing the lose powder IN cigarettes itself. No one would question him for carrying a pack of cigarettes around. It was small, fits in his pocket, and… yes… a flame is also needed to start off the redox reaction. Carrying a pack of cigarettes and a lighter would be perfect. That was how Sakurai ended up hunched over his desk with the menial task of mixing the powders in the right proportion and packing them into cigarette wrapping. ‘Part one completed’ he thought to himself. He still has more to complete… but first, he needs to get a break.

Turning on the TV, Sakurai grabbed a can of beer from the fridge and settled happily on his sofa to watch his favorite program – News Zero. Sho missed the days when he actually had time to do things like reading newspapers. But now as a medical officer he barely had time to sleep. Sakurai sighed. He could barely wait for his housemanship year to finish so that he could join the Agency proper.

Sakurai was first asked to join the Agency by Johnny two years ago, right before he entered the final year of medical school. The Agency was in dire need of manpower at that time, in particular, they needed a knowledgeable man, someone who could advise his peers on a wide range of subject matters on the field, and Sakurai fitted the bill perfectly. The first born of a politician and a university professor, Sakurai’s single minded pursuit of knowledge was well known throughout the university. Even though the study schedules of medical students were absolutely crazy, Sho somehow managed to find time to drop in on random classes that interested him. Once, he even scored distinction in an economics assay test - and he was not even a proper student of the said course. To top it off, Sho was also the vice-president of the student union. Being a member of the student union as a medical student was a feat in itself, but to be vice-president? That was completely unheard of. It was no wonder the distinguished student caught the eye of Johnny. Sho had agreed in a heartbeat. After all the reason why he ended up in medical school was more so because of his parent’s expectations than anything else. He didn’t hate it, but he didn’t particularly have an extremely strong passion either. The only caveat was that he had to finish med school and become a full fledged doctor. And so Sho has another half a year of slogging through to go.

Although Sakurai had a good brain, he wasn’t as talented in the physical department. Not so much as to his strength per say, but he just wasn’t talented in sports. This had caused Johnny’s advisors to caution against hiring Sho, but Johnny was convinced that Sakurai would make an invaluable addition to the Agency. After all, which army did not have their own doctors? Plus, Sakurai had shown his ability to absorb information like a sponge. And more importantly, he knew how to use the information. Johnny was certain that Sho’s aptitude for knowledge was more than asset enough for the Agency. Physical abilities can be trained, but you can’t train someone to be a genius.

The Agency, or Secret Service, as Sakurai Sho prefers to call it (since they both take the same short form of SS), was formed by Johnny Kitagawa in 1962 as a secret branch of the police. The previous spy department had been disbanded following Japan’s surrender during the WW2. In the years following WW2, Japan had abandoned its military development (or you could say they were forced to) and went on to focus its efforts on industrial development. It was only when the then police chief, Johnny came around that the idea of Japan having their own spy department re-surfaced, and eventually the Agency was formed.

Sakurai sighed and turned off the TV as the news program came to an end. He slowly shuffled back to his desk to continue his work on disguising his freshly made smoke bombs into inconspicuous looking cigarettes. ‘I guess the fun part will come when I get to test them out.’ He was still unconvinced at his own decision to make the special cigarettes and prayed hard they would work as planned… 'Hopefully I’ll be able to finish them in an hour…’ Sho thought as he looked at the clock. He still has an early day ahead of him tomorrow.

 


	6. Ohno Satoshi

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What would happen if our five stormy boys are not idols? What would happen if JE itself is not an entertainment agency, but a spy agency instead? Come, find out with me!

Ohno was happily out at sea. He had planned a 24-hour fishing marathon with the ship’s captain. They originally wanted to go fishing for two days, back-to-back, but in the end they decided to merge it into a 24-hour trip. Enjoying the sun and the sea breeze, Ohno turned his thoughts to the string of events that lead him to his current position.

As a teen, Ohno had absolutely no interest in studying. Lessons bore him to no end, and reading kanji gave him a headache. After watching a butai about samurais, he became interested in the art of kenjutsu and took up the kendo with his mother’s encouragement. Ohno took to kendo rather naturally. Key concepts in kendo such as mushin (empty mind) and fudoushin (unmoving mind) were like child’s play to him – his mind seems to be blank most of the time anyway. Ohno quickly impressed the instructor with his agility and quick reflexes. Even though he had less than a year’s experience, his coach recommended him to take part in the local kendo competition together with the rest of his seniors. When Ohno refused due to his lack of confidence, the coach approached his mother instead. His mum secretly sent in the participation forms, and before Ohno could figure out what was going on, he was packed in a mini-van together with the rest of his seniors to the competition area. The rest was history. Ohno easily fenced off all competition and came out tops. Everyone was surprised at the outcome, including Ohno himself. The coach knew Ohno had the talent, but he was never THAT good during practice. It seemed like Ohno became a totally different person during the competition… like he switched on his true ability or something…

News of the ‘miracle boy’ reached Johnny, and he took a liking to Ohno right away. He recruited Ohno into the Agency there and than, at a tender age of 13. Ohno was only too happy to oblige – he would do anything to get him out of school. Normally the Agency only accept or invite recruits when they reach at least 16 years of age. Most agents only joined the agency when they were in their twenties. Ohno’s entrance sent ripples throughout the Agency – his seniors either admired him for his talent, or were outright jealous of his entrance. In order to avoid friction within the Agency, the boss had Ohno sent to Kyoto for special training instead of joining the rest of his seniors in Tokyo. There was of course plenty of protests from the higher ups in the Agency, however Johnny was of the opinion that training should start as young as possible. Plus, having a kid around MIGHT turn out to be useful in certain missions anyway.

In Kyoto, Ohno was given the exposure to various forms of marital arts. He was particularly interested in Wing Chuan, a form of Chinese martial arts that is firm yet flexible, rooted but yielding. While he did continue to practice kendo, he felt that the kendouka (shout) and fumikomi-ashi (stamping of the front foot) was rather unnecessary – he preferred to move and say as minimally as possible, what's more, he found them impractical. No one would want to announce their attack to their enemy in a real fight after all. In addition to martial arts and kendo training, Ohno was taught to handle modern weaponry. Starting with air pistols and air rifles, he soon graduated to handling real ones. His calm mind and steady hand made it easy for him to connect with his target, and soon he became a professional marksman.

Apart from physical trainings, Ohno attended a lot of lessons as well. How to react to terrorists, how to rescue hostages, negotiate, plan strategies and lead the team... A lot of it just went over Ohno's head as he was still too young, but over time, his brain managed to absorbed and digest the information. By the time he was 16 - when other recruits just entered the Agency, Ohno was already equipped with all the knowledge a regular working spy needed to know.

He'd started on missions roughly a year after he entered the Agency, and he'd been on so many missions, small and big, since then that he'd lost count. Ohno jerked out of his thoughts when he felt the fishing rod tug in his hands. Ohno smiled and as he started reeling the line in, and wondered if it's a tuna this time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another short one this time, I hope you like the character I created for leader! XD


	7. Trainees

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What would happen if our five stormy boys are not idols? What would happen if JE itself is not an entertainment agency, but a spy agency instead? Come, find out with me!

The mass recruitment drive that the Agency conducted meant that the Agency was overflowing with new recruits. A total of 29 hot blooded boys in their early 20s reported to the first training session. Most of them had been recruited via the police force during the entrance exams, but there were three 'direct entries'. While the rest of them had to prove their worth during the three months crash course, specifically designed to weed out less competent recruits, these three had already been given the ticket to enter the Agency. Sakurai Sho smirked as he was introduced before the rest of the recruits. It felt good being special. While the rest had to slave hard in the upcoming course to ensure they get a foot into the Agency, Sho could not help but feel a sense of superiority knowing that his place into the Agency had been secured more than two years ago. He looked at the only other two members who had also been offered a straight ticket in. One was a scrawny little boy who barely looked like he could lift a weight, while the other was tall and handsome. Sho scoffed at them both. _'What's so good about that skinny boy to have him picked into the Agency?',_ Sho thought. But what occupied his attention more was the other guy. The son of the Commissioner General, and heir of the Matsumoto family. Their family members have held the top positions in the police force since forever, and Sho had no doubt that the only reason that guy got an offer into the Agency was because of his father. His heart swelled up in pride as he thought of how he'd gotten in on his own abilities.

Even though the three had been given a ticket into the Agency, they were still required to go through the three months physical training course like everyone else. The trainings were tough and many soon dropped out in the weeks that followed. Sho was tired too, but he coped better than most, and certainly a hell lot better than that scrawny boy called Nino. He suspected that the only reason Nino had not been kicked out of the program yet was because 1) he had the direct ticket, and 2) he had made friends with a friendly and strong chap by the name of Aiba, and Aiba had been doing stuff like helping carry Nino's packs during field training. Sho could not understand why the man was so helpful. Surely a weakling like Nino could not be of much use to the Agency? _'He would be better off if he dropped out,'_ Sho mused. Sho turned his thoughts towards Matsumoto. The man had indeed proved his worth as the Commissioner General's son and was excelling in the trainings. Sho was not doing badly either, they were purely doing physical training right now, and Sho had done a fair share of running and gym exercises to acquire loads of strength and good stamina. On top of that, having been a house officer and medical student, he was more than used to the lack of sleep. In fact, on days most day they managed to catch 3, or even 4 hours of sleep - a luxury he did not even have in his previous line of work. Still, Matsumoto's presence irked him. The man had a natural aura about him that made him a born leader, something which did not sit well with Sho as he had always been the one to lead amongst his peers. It didn't help that Jun came from the police academy, and was already used to all the drills and exercises that they were doing. Jun did not seem to notice the rivalry though, and treated Sho with the same smiley, happy, friendliness as he treated everyone else, and that made Sho seethe with rage. Sho also suspected that his rival was only pretending to be helpful and respectful - but unfortunately no one else shared his views. _‘I will never ever fall to that guy’s fake charms!’_ , Sho declared. He resolved to read up more so that he could best his rival, and ended up spending all his free time in the Agency library. Sho might not be able to win Matsumoto when they start proper combat training, but he wanted to at least beat the man in the upcoming written test. He had already started some reading in his spare time since he was first recruited, but spare time was had to find in medicine and Sho regretted it now that he faced a tough rival.

By the time the three month physical training course came to an end, there were a total of 14 trainees left - less than half of what they started off with. By sheer cunning luck and thanks to his new found friend Aiba, Nino had managed to survive the course intact. He'd even managed to build up a little bit of muscles in his arms. The day of announcing the training results came and everyone waited in the assembly hall with bated breath. The lack of manpower in the Agency and the strict quota imposed by the government meant that they could not afford to lose anymore recruits, but still, the rank they will receive will determine whether they will be part of a work group and be able to take part in high priority missions, or whether they will be a normal agent doing less exciting jobs like guarding VIPs and routine surveillance exercises.

Heads turned as Johnny himself strolled into the hall. They had been expecting their instructors, or maybe some more senior officer to address them, but no one expected a visit from the Commander-in-Chief himself. The instructors gave out the letter acknowledging that each of them passed the training and was now an official member of the Agency. The candidates burst around the hall in excitement as they compared ranks with each other. It was obvious who did well and who did not. Those who got put in low ranks had their heads down and were looking very gloom, whereas those who did well was all smiles. Sho took a deep breath before looking at his results. The words 'Rank Number 5' stared back in his face and he broke into a smile. Agents who were ranked 6-10 (10 being the lowest rank) were considered junior agents and would not be able to join higher difficulty missions. Sho smiled, glad that he made the cut. His smile turned into a frown however, when he found out that both Aiba and Matsumoto were ranked 4. 'Damn it!!!' Sho cursed in his mind. It was the first time in his life that he tried so hard against a rival and still failed. Not only that, Sho could not believe that he had lost to that bubbly and absented minded Aiba! The last insult came when he found out that Nino was ranked the same as him. 'Fuck this shit! What sort of idiot ranked this! How can someone who has been getting illegitimate help from others throughout the course score so well! Fuck this!' Sho fumed silently. He would have stomped out of the hall in rage if not for the fact the Johnny had stepped up on stage and was clearly intending to address them. He took deep breaths to calm himself down Johnny started speaking.

"You have done well to pass this course," Johnny started speaking.  
"However you are far from being a true Agent!" He roared, startling the trainees.  
"You have your ranks yes?" The trainees nodded.  
"Don't think for once that that will be getting you anywhere!" Johnny barked once again. He clearly had his mind set on giving the trainees a good talking down.  
"They are only temporary! You will undergo proper combat, tactical, and espionage training. And those of you who make the cut will have the chance to become junior agents. I have been persuaded however, by your trainers," Johnny turned around to eye the two Kinki agents standing at the back of the hall.  
"That some of you have extraordinary talent. I will hence be putting these few in a temporary team. You will train as a team and work as a team. And at the end of it all if you succeed, and only if you succeed, than will you be given your agent pass."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the late release! Amid my adventures on Mixlr, doing subbing transcripts, and my JLPT yesterday, I didn't have time to post... initially I thought I had some editing/re-writing to do, but turns out that it was all done already... haha :P. Maybe I'll post another chapter this week to make up for it... ;)


	8. Surprise Annoucements

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What would happen if our five stormy boys are not idols? What would happen if JE itself is not an entertainment agency, but a spy agency instead? Come, find out with me!

There was a buzz all around the Agency. Johnny had just announced the formation of a temporary group within the Agency, consisting of 5 young and aspiring members – Aiba Masaki, Ninomiya Kazunari, Sakurai Sho, Matsumoto Jun, and Ohno Satoshi. The talk among the trainees was regarding the unknown member Ohno Satoshi. There was plenty of speculations regarding who he was, how and when he got into the Agency. On the other hand, the talk among the Agents was on the radical decision made by Johnny to put a skilled agent together with a team of four rookies, who have not even made it out of basic training. Furthermore, announcing a temporary team for trainees was an unprecedented thing. There were junior teams alright, but temporary teams? Now that was new. Even the Agents themselves were confused by the new name Johnny-san had created.

 

Combat training soon began for the new recruits, and the members of the new temp group were seemingly getting along well with each other. The only problem with the group was that Ohno was… missing. No one else in the group knew anything about Ohno. Heck, they’ve not even HEARD of him before, much less SEEN him. And this guy was… supposed to be a part of their group? Why didn’t he even turn up for their first briefing? Their handler had patiently explained that Ohno was away on a solo mission, and that he will be back in one or two months. Solo mission? The four guys looked around in bewilderment. None of them had been on missions before, much less solo missions. Plus, they were not yet official agents, and un-official agents do not get sent out on missions. They all agreed that there was more to Ohno Satoshi than what meets the eye.

 

Curious to learn more, Aiba started poking around for more information on the mysterious agent. While snooping and asking around did not get Aiba far, he did manage to gather some interesting information. While the system of junior agents and agents, together with the ranking system had been explained to them beforehand, Aiba was surprised to know that there was a rank known as junior trainees. Trainees were new recruits, agents to be still learning the trade and trying to prove their mantle. While those who were recruited were of legal working (20 and above) age, Aiba was surprised to learn that junior trainees recruited were as young as 16. And while the word junior trainees suggested that they were inferior to trainees, in truth it was often the opposite. Most junior trainees have been training in the Agency for years, whereas trainees were fresh recruits. Adult recruits normally stay as trainees for a year, after which they become either agents or junior agents, depending on their performance. Those who did not make the cut were denied of a job at the Agency, and many ended up joining the police force instead.

 

"So Ohno is most likely a junior trainee!" Aiba concluded, as he finished presenting the results of his investigation to the other three members.

"Ne Sho-kun, you were invited to join the Agency three years ago, surely you have heard of this man?" Aiba asked, ever so cheerful and friendly.

Sho shook his head, "Nope, we're talking about a secret branch of the government, doing the government's secret jobs, what makes you think they would let out such secrets to insignificant beings like me?" Sho huffed. Aiba was friendly alright, but he still could not get over the fact that Aiba manged to get a higher rank than him.

"He's probably just another random guy that Johnny tricked into joining the Agency at an early age..." Nino replied. He was getting bored of Aiba's obsession with their phantom member, and his body was aching all over from their trainings. Jun sensed Nino's irritation, and tried to smooth things out,

"He's just another normal trainee I guess, there's no need to get so obsessed over him". The rest nodded wearily in agreement, and Aiba looked downcast by the lack of interest from the rest.

Little did they know that Ohno was far from normal. After joining the agency at 13, he had embarked on his first mission the following year, as part of the decoy group. It wasn’t a particularly hard mission, and Ohno had been under the watchful eyes of the members of SMAP, but he still broke the agency record for being the youngest member to take on missions. Following the first success, Johnny began deploying Ohno out whenever an innocent young teenager could be helpful to the mission. Then when Ohno was 16, he took on his first ever solo mission proper. They had needed someone to infiltrate the building though the air duct and retrieve some information from the computers, and Ohno’s small build made him perfect for the job. Ohno jumped at the opportunity to perform, and since it was a relatively safe and easy mission, Johnny consented.

 

Currently Ohno was on his 45th mission, working at a bakery shop in Okinawa in order to gather some information about the possible drug smuggling in the area. It’s been one and a half months and there had been absolutely no trace of the smugglers though. Normally Ohno would have asked Johnny for permission to return to Tokyo already, but this time round he had hesitated. Ohno was just enjoying himself too much in Okinawa. The bread from the bakery was delicious, and Ohno enjoyed sun tanning on the beach in his free time. Plus, the fishing in Okinawa was good. It all seemed like a holiday come true for Ohno. Unbeknownst to Ohno though, a holiday was exactly what Johnny had in mind for his favourite agent. There were reports of drug smuggling activity in the area, but the possibility of those rumours being true had been almost close to nil. What Johnny hadn’t expect was that his prodigy will enjoy his holiday so much. A bit too much in fact. Still, Johnny decided to let Ohno enjoy the ocean breeze a little while more. The poor boy had never had anything close to a holiday since he joined the Agency 10 years ago. It was two weeks after the formation of the new group when Ohno got a call from Johnny. Johnny hadn’t exactly summoned Ohno back, but Ohno got the message immediately when Johnny announced that Ohno was now part of a 5 member team.

“What? Since when!?!?!” Ohno exclaimed, bewildered that he had not been informed beforehand.

“Oh since two weeks ago actually…” Johnny chuckled.

“TWO WEEKS! And you didn’t think of telling me till NOW?” Ohno screamed into the phone.

“Well considering how much fun you were having… if your tan is any indication… I thought I’ll let you have a little more fun.” Johnny laughed. Ohno mumbled something unintelligible into the receiver before putting hanging up the phone, still muttering curses under his breath. He’d unknowingly already left a bad impression on his teammates BEFORE they even meet. Ohno was sure he’d set a brand new record of ‘piss off your teammates in the shortest possible time’ in the Agency. Yet another new record, Ohno sighed as he wondered how to break the news to the old couple that he’ll no longer be able to work for them.

 

Ohno sat uncomfortably on the sofa, while waiting for his team members to arrive. He had got back in Tokyo the week before, and spent some time watching the rest of his members before deciding that he should stop postponing the inevitable - meeting his team members. Ohno was hunched over in a corner and digging his nose when the rest of the four arrive. It seems like they had already gotten off to a pretty good start without Ohno, as the four of them were joking and laughing with each other as they entered the room. Which was nothing out of the ordinary though, considering that they had been together for nearly a month already. Ohno shrunk further into his seat as he realised how left out he was. How would he be able to work in a group like this? Ohno silently cursed his mentor. Johnny should have known better than to play such pranks on him. As much as he did enjoy the extended holiday, Ohno did not appreciate being left out of the group. And he sucked enough at human relationships already, if his relationship with the rest of the Agency, minus Johnny SMAP and TOKIO were of any indication.

 

Perhaps Ohno wasn't entirely to blame for that though. Johnny had been so pleased over his 'catch' that he had announced Ohno's joining in the grandest possible way - at the New Year's party. The New Year party was the grandest possible gathering in the Agency. Every one attended it, from the old senpais, (even those who are retired!) to the young and newly joined juniors. It was the night of fun and celebration, and also a night for acknowledging the hard work of deserving members/groups of the Agency. The annual Agency rewards was the last event on the agenda of the party, and was the highlight of the night. That was, except for the year when Ohno made his appearance AFTER the awards ceremony. Johnny had announced Ohno's appearance with a Steve Jobs styled 'and one more thing'. And a big deal that 'thing' turned out to be indeed. No one remembered anything else that night besides this young boy named Ohno Satoshi. The reaction of the agents were mixed. Some were in awe of the talent this young boy processed that prompted Johnny to recruit him at such a young age, but for the most part, they thought that Johnny had made a mistake, or was downright pulling their leg. Some even believed that it was Johnny's cheap ploy of saying they were not even as good as a kid, and downright hated Ohno. Ohno had ran off the stage in fright at the mixture of cheers and jeers coming from the crowd. It had been Ohno's very first day at the Agency too. From then on, Ohno made all sorts of excuses to avoid the New Year party, he was just one small kid and nobody would miss him anyway (as least that was how Ohno tried to convince himself), and Johnny had sent him off to their Kyoto branch for one on one training. Ohno never mixed with anyone in the Agency besides his instructors, till he had to go on missions with SMAP and TOKIO. Even then Ohno mostly kept to himself, preferring the peace and quiet of his own existence to joining in the mindless chatter.

 

The four men gang had been chatting animatedly about Aiba's love for karaage when they entered their designated resting room, only to find an unknown tanned man sitting on their sofa. An awkward silence filled the room as they waited for some sort of introduction from the tanned man. The new guy however, just sat there in silence. In the end it was Sho who spoke up first.

"Are you.... Ohno Satoshi?"

"Unn... nice to meet you." Ohno stood up and shook hands with Sho. After each member gave a brief introduction, the room fell back into silence.

"Johnny said that... you were on a mission?" A curious Aiba asked. At that, Ohno's face flashed beet red.

"Yeah sort of... it was more like a... holiday then a mission though..."

"A holiday?" Jun asked, narrowing his eyes. A holiday does not sound like a good excuse to miss their group formation announcement.

"It was all Johnny's fault!" Ohno lamented.

"He only thought of telling me that I'm part of a work group two weeks after the group was formed!" The members laughed wearily, as tension hang in the air.

 

The rest of the months passed peacefully for the group. The four new members continued their basic training as required by all new Agency members. Ohno had his own training routine to adhere to however, and the members only saw each other occasionally. Eventually though, Ohno started taking on solo missions again and they barely saw Ohno anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! A longer? chapter this time. And they've finally met Ohno, even though the meeting didn’t really go well... How will they continue from here on? Please wait for the next chapter! XD


	9. Training Camp

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What would happen if our five stormy boys are not idols? What would happen if JE itself is not an entertainment agency, but a spy agency instead? Come, find out with me!

The days for the remaining four members were packed to the brim, and their brains was constantly suffering from information overload and indigestion. From dissembling to putting back various weaponry, to learning about the various explosives and how to handle them, the trainees were constantly put to the test each day. Even Sho had gotten too tired with training and studying that he had no time to bother about his jealousy of his teammate, though it did not make him like them any better. He was immensely looking forward to having a break and recharging himself when during the Christmas and New Year holidays.

 

When the New Year party rolled around, Ohno was not around again, though this time not of his own choosing. He had been sent to investigate a suspected terrorist who had fled Japan to India, and Ohno was sent to provide support for the Kinki Kids duo who had been temporarily stationed in India to investigate the said man. Unexpected movements made by the suspect had forced the agents to lengthen their monitoring period, and as much as Ohno enjoyed the Indian curry, he was getting uneasy about leaving his team members alone for so long. The reasons for his unease became real after the heard of the announcement Johnny made during the New Year party.

 

Ohno had just reached the small apartment - his home for the duration of his work in India, after a tiring day of tailing one of the extended targets. He looked at the clock, it was 4am already. He had welcomed the new year by stalking an unknown man halfway round the town. Ohno sighed as he picked up the phone to make a rare call to his teammates. He hoped they would be awake already, it would be 8am over in Japan after all.

 

A sleepy Sakurai picked up the phone, and was suprised to hear the voice of his teammate. Ohno had not been in contact at all since he left for his mission in India after all. Sho faithfully recounted all the announcements Johnny made the previous night. What Sho had to say left Ohno extremely worried. Johnny had announced that the task force that had been set up at a similar time as theirs would be coming over from their Kyoto branch over to the Tokyo branch to train. Johnny had set it up so that both groups would be direct competitors to each other, and the competition will be very stiff indeed. Ohno's heart sank when he heard Sho mention that their rival was a junior trainee group by the name of Kanjani8, and the four of them had to pack their bags for a three month long training camp with Kanjani8 that was starting in 2 day's time. Ohno politely wished Sho all the best, while apologizing in advance for his absence from the camp.

 

Ohno groaned as he put down the phone. As tired as he was from the chase, he could not help but think about how his teammates would cope with the Kansai brats from Kanjani. Unlike his own task force which had barely been formed 3 months ago last September, Kanjani8 was a completely different matter. As the name suggests, it was a group of 8 boys from the Kansai branch of the Agency. The group had been put together roughly 4 years ago, when the members of the team passed the Agency entrance examinations. The new recruits were all 16 years of age - the minimum requirement by the Agency (under normal circumstances at least), and were thus considered 'elites'. It wasn't that any of his teammates were dumb, or less capable. With the exception of Aiba who gained entry in the Agency through the normal route of taking the entrance examinations, the rest had all been invited in the Agency. However 4 years of intensive training in the Agency program made a huge difference, particularly when it comes to his teammate's physical abilities. When Jun and Aiba would not fare as badly, considering that they were both from the police force, Ohno was sure that Nino and Sho were going to have a terrible time at the camp. Nino being a typical geek, he was white and skinny, with not much to show in terms of power or stamina. On the other hand, while Sho was quite the muscle boy, he was terrible in terms of hand eye coordination, and Ohno had no doubt that he would be smacked around like a toy if he sparred with any Kanjani member. Plus, if his brief encounters with his team members were anything to judge, they were going to have a hard time getting along with Kanjani at the camp. Jun with his hot temper, and Nino with his sharp tongue. To be honest Ohno didn't like Kanjani either. They were a rowdy, boisterous lot, and amongst them Yokoyama Yuu was a huge pain in the neck. He was loud and obnoxious, and thought the world of himself. Ohno would have loved to be at the camp to put him down a notch, but at the rate the mission was going, Ohno had no idea if they would even be able to go home by the end of the month. Ohno ended by lying awake thinking of the future ahead before he finally fell asleep at dawn.

 

While Sho had taken the news of Ohno being unable to make it for the training camp calmly, Jun certainly didn't feel the same. He was outraged at Ohno's absence, even though it was clearly not Ohno's fault that he was unable to attend. Still, what was the use of being in a five member group when the fifth member was never around? While the four of them had more or less gotten used to each other’s presence during the months of combat training, they still barely knew a thing about Ohno. His mood only soured as he was outperformed in every category by the rival Kanjani8 members. The training camp aimed not only to increase the member's physical abilities, but also their team work. That meant that the four members were constantly being pitched against the 8 member strong Kanjani. And it was definitely not a fair fight. Even though they fight 4 on 4 in paintball practice for example, the Kanjani8 members had replacements to fight in each round, whereas the four had to fight in every single round. On top of that they were greatly outclassed by the Kanjani members who had years of experience ahead of them. It was hardly surprising that they lost in every single competition.

 

The mood in the small temp group was at its worst when the field exercise came around. Jun was angry at himself for constantly being behind Kanjani, and his frustration was showing through in the way he treated the other members, especially Nino who had the most trouble keeping up with the physical demands of the camp. Jun's irate mode did not help with Sho's jealousy of his teammates either. Nino's bratty attitude and sharp tongue only made things worst, and even the usually cheerful Aiba seems to have lost his spark. And so it was in such an atmosphere that the 'cat and mouse' hunt began on a cold winter day. They were in an abandoned amusement park that now served as training grounds for the Agency. The four had been given an hour to hide in the park, before the 8 kanjani hunters came after them. The objective was simple, take out the other team before they take you out. How to achieve the objective though, was a different matter altogether.

 

Time was of the essence. They only had 15 minutes to discuss before the exercise starts, and after that, only a further hour before kanjani comes snapping at their heels. The four members looked at each other wearily, with no one wanting to speak a word. Finally Jun decided to take the lead. Pointing at the rough map of training grounds, Jun quickly mapped up a route for them to take.

"From here I can see that there are still some functional roads in the park," Jun said as he peered over his shoulder into the park.

"We'll stick with the roads as much as possible so that we won't leave any tracks. I suggest we head to the castle here and we can find good sniping spots to take out kanjani as they come in." Jun finished.

Nino and Aiba nodded, they had no better any of their own anyway. Sho however, stayed silent. Taking his silence as consent, Jun ignored Sho and the four picked up their packs and set off into the park.

 

Jun was at the end of his line. He threw down his rug and kicked away the bucket, causing the water to spill all over the floor.

"I've had enough of this! I'm quitting!" He yelled, before storming out of the canteen.

"Jun! Jun!" A worried Aiba yelled after him before abandoning his own rug and sprinting down the corridor Jun came from. It had been two and a half months into training, and none of them had had a break. While there was no official training scheduled on weekends, their poor performance throughout meant that they had been constantly punished with extra physical exercises or cleaning activity, like the canteen they were cleaning up now. In fact, they had been punished to clean the training campus so often that Sho wondered if their punishment was simply to make up for the fact that they hired way too few cleaners. So while Kanjani had been enjoying all their weekends, the four had been scrubbing the campus in misery. Kanjani were of no help either. The Kansai group had no love for their Tokyo counterparts, and were constantly gloating over their weekend holiday episodes, or trying to find other ways to make their lives miserable. It was no wonder that the hot headed Jun could no longer take it anymore.

 

Their latest punishment came because of their pathetic lose in the cat and mouse game two days ago. They had holed up in the castle as Jun suggested, and kept watch at various points within the castle, watching out for the approaching kanjani members. However, they never saw kanjani coming. They were taken out by surprise, with only Jun managing to take out one kanjani member before getting a barrage of painful shots in the ribs. The rest were 'dead' before they even knew a thing. It turns out that it was not kanjani's first time in the park, and they were extremely familiar with the network of tunnels and hidden walkways within the amusement park. They had used the tunnels to travel to the castle, the most obvious spot in the park. On the other hand, their prey were completely ignorant of the existence of the tunnels.

 

Jun had barely gotten out of the building when he crashed into someone. The said person was currently lying on the floor looking really tired and confused.

"Ohno?" Jun was shocked when he realized the man lying on the floor in a sorry heap.

"What... what are you doing here?" Jun stammered, his anger earlier had all but dissipated the moment he saw the sad state Ohno was in.

"Ohno-san? Are you alright?" Sho asked as he went forward to help Ohno up.

"Yeah I'm fine," Ohno mumbled.

"Mission ended so I thought I should join you guys." Ohno replied as he tried to get up unsteadily. Sho narrowed his eyes at Ohno as he reached out to stable the older man. The last thing Ohno could remembered was Sho mumbling "Yeah right" before everything around him went black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh yay! Finally Ohno made his appearance! A more Ohno-centric chapter this time!


	10. Ohno's Return

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What would happen if our five stormy boys are not idols? What would happen if JE itself is not an entertainment agency, but a spy agency instead? Come, find out with me!

Jun immensely was glad that Sho was around. He had never realize how useful having a medical doctor in their group was till Ohno suddenly collapsed in front of him. He was still in a daze when Sho ordered him to carry Ohno's suitcase into their sleeping quarters and inform the rest of what happened.

"You can manage?" Jun finally snapped out of his daze.

"Yeah I'll be fine." Sho nodded as he carried Ohno to the medical center. Ohno’s sudden appearance - and collapse, had made all of Jun’s anger disappeared in an instant. Jun kicked around an empty can in the corridor, reflecting on the sudden turn of events with a gloomy mode as he walked behind Sho to the centre.

 

When Ohno came to, he found himself surrounded by four pairs of eyes. His head hurt terribly and there was an IV drip sticking out of his arm.

"Just what have you been doing?" Sho scowled.

"You're badly dehydrated, having a fever, and..."

"Bag..." Ohno muttered weakly as he motioned.

Jun snatched up a plastic bag lying on the counter and held it open for Ohno, just in time as Ohno threw up into the bag. The rest watched anxiously as Sho attended to their leader, unable to do much to help.

"Do you want to eat something?" Sho asked Ohno as the man laid back down on the bed, exhausted. Ohno merely shook his head in reply, and the room fell once more into an uncomfortable silence.

"Ne, why don't we go finish cleaning up..." Jun said softy as he tapped on Aiba's arm.

"Unn" Aiba nodded, "Rest well ne leader?".

After the trio stepped out of the room, Jun apologized, "Sorry about the mess I made earlier..."

"Its alright, I'm just worried about leader." Aiba sighed.

"Don't worry, I'm sure Ohno will be fine." Nino replied, although he didn't sound so sure himself.

 

After the rest had left, Sho started probing Ohno.

"How are you feeling now?"

"I'm fine." Ohno mumbled.

"No you're not..." Sho frowned.

"I will be" Ohno argued, though his feeble voice certainly suggested otherwise. Sho let out a huge sigh before continuing.

"Look Ohno, I'm trying to help you out here. For one you are clearly sick. Two, I'm a doctor. Three, I'm just a newbie doctor and by the seriousness of your illness I have half a mind to send you to the hospital where you can get some proper care. Plus, its a month into the camp and as much as I hate it admit, I'm exhausted. So will you please answer my questions properly?" Sho drew in a sharp breath as he ended the mini lecture.

Earlier he had called the Agency to find out what the hell was going on, but it appeared that all the Agency knew was that Ohno had just gotten off the flight from India and demanded to be driven to their training campus. A call to Kinki, who were still stationed in India, had proved more useful however. They informed Sho that the decision to put Ohno on a flight back to Tokyo had been a very last minute thing. They had noticed Ohno looking more pale and tired for the past week, but Ohno just kept shrugging it off every time they asked. Initially they assumed that it was just because the mission had been going on for too long, but they realized something was off when Ohno barely touched his breakfast. When they followed him to the toilet and found Ohno throwing up, they made the decision to send him back to Tokyo on the very next flight.

"Sorry, we should have been more alert after the warnings from Joshima but... we hardly get to meet and all with all the stuff we've had to do." Koichi said.

"It's alright..." Sho replied, he was more curious about the warning that Joshima had given though.

"Ah that, Joshima said that Ohno's the type who would never admit that he's unwell... you know when we asked him to go back to Japan to rest he refused and insisted he was alright... but thankfully Tsuyoshi reminded him that he could join you guys at the camp if he goes back... Strange though I was sure I'd sent out a mail to the Agency asking them to send Ohno to the hospital.... Ah I heard though, that there was once he overexerted himself and they hospitalized him for two weeks against his wishes. He'd hated hospitals ever since."

 

Sho could tell that what Koichi said about Ohno's hatred for hospitals was right, because as soon as he mentioned it, Ohno visibly stiffened up.

"So, judging by all the gastric juice you threw up, you've not eaten anything for a while huh?"

Ohno nodded.

"Just how long have you been sick for? Can you please tell me when it started?" Sho asked again.

Ohno took a deep breath before he gave Sho a brief rundown of the events in the past week.

 

It had been one of Ohno's most tiring mission yet. They had only three men on the ground and Ohno had probably the worst luck out of them all. The target he had been assigned to tail was running seriously all over the place. He had chased the target up on board the train before he realized that he had no idea where the hell the train was going. They had boarded the train illegally after all. In fact, board would not be a right word to use, for they were actually dangling on the railings outside the train precariously as it the train zoomed out of the city and into the countryside. The sun was beating down directly on the train. With no water to drink Ohno was quickly feeling the strength drain out of him as he struggled to hold on. By the time the train had reached the next station three hours later, Ohno had completely given up all prospects of finding out where the target was heading to in favor of keeping himself alive. When Ohno had finally made his way back to the hotel 5 hours later and thrown up, he was so exhausted that he could not even tell if it was due to food poisoning or the heat exhaustion. He'd spent the better part of the following day resting in his apartment, only going out for dinner when he ran out of food. The next morning he thought he'd recovered already, and meet Koichi for a brief discussion in the local food market. Unfortunately for Ohno, the combination of yogurt, heavy spices and plenty of oil did not agree with his weakened stomach, and he'd pretty much thrown up after every meal till he finally could not force himself to eat anything in the morning before he got sent home.

 

Sho sighed as Ohno finished his brief recount. He had deduced as much from Ohno's condition and the telephone conversation with Kinki, but he had assumed that the heat exhaustion was a slow buildup throughout the week, not from right at the start. Sho measured Ohno's temperature and blood pressure and noted down the values in the record book. It wasn't any better compared to the first measurement earlier, but then again, that had been barely an hour ago.

"Do you have a headache, or..." Ohno interrupted before Sho could finish

"A little dizzy, and headache yeah..."

"A little?" Sho questioned.

"It was worst just now..."

Sho nodded, "That's to be expected though. You're fairly dehydrated and with a low blood pressure. I'd like you to lie in bed and just press the call bell if you need anything alright?"

Ohno nodded obediently, seemingly resigned to his fate.

"I'd rather not have you fainting again... now let's take a look at your stomach..."

Sho said as he lifted the base of Ohno's shirt to examine the abdominal area. Sho warmed the stethoscope with his hands before listening for bowel sounds. Sho then proceeded to percuss and palpate the area, closely watching Ohno's facial expressions while doing so. Ono's stomach was noticeably bloated and churning very loudly. He noted the noticeable wince that appeared on Ohno's face when he palpated an area.

"Does it hurt when I do this?" Sho asked, as he pressed down on the same region again.

"A little..." Ohno winced.

"You got the stomach flu," Sho informed Ohno.

"I'll give you something to help prevent vomiting but for now getting you hydrated and rested is the top priority. Remember what I said, I don't want to see you out of bed without my permission you hear me?" Ohno nodded weakly as Sho set off to the pharmacy. Hopefully they have a stock of the medication Ohno needs.

 

Sho needn't have worried though, the pharmacy was well stocked. Overly well stocked in fact, they practically had enough stock to run a mini hospital - if not for the lack of manpower that is. Somehow Johnny had even managed to get his hands on controlled substances like morphine for the clinic. Sho shook his head in bewilderment. Just how influential was Johnny? Sho took the medication he was looking for and signed out of the log book (together with the IV drip and hydration shots he took out earlier, he was in such a rush he didn't notice the logbook at all) before heading back to give Ohno the medication.

 

It was almost 2am when Sho was woken up by a rough shake. He opened his eyes to see Nino standing in front of him. Sho stretched his back as he stood up. He'd fallen asleep on the chair next to Ohno and it wasn't the most comfortable position to sleep in.

"Fancy them having a ward with no nurse..." Nino lamented.

Sho gave a bitter smile. "Well we aren't supposed to be around here during the weekends after all... And its not like there's a lot of teams using this training ground at any one time... so it doesn't make sense for them to hire two nurses just so that they can rotate and have someone cover the weekends...".

"Hmm true..." Nino admitted after some consideration.

"But what if there was an accident and we didn't have a doctor like you around?"

"Well there's always the hospital..." Sho said, and they let the matter rest.

Sho had told the rest about Ohno's hatred for hospitals, although Nino still didn't quite understand why. After all its just two weeks of rest wasn't it? Nino made a mental note to ask Ohno more about it next time.

 

Ohno kept to his word and remained rested in bed for the entire Sunday. He had refused Sho's offer of bringing him a bedpan though. There was a limit to how much his pride could take. He'd let Sho helped him to the bathroom though. In spite of his embarrassment at being seen in such a pathetic state, Ohno was glad that Sho was there to help him. He had severely overestimated himself, and was now paying the price for under estimating the severity of his illness. He had been so dizzy the first time he stood up that Ohno was sure he would have collapsed and hit his head on something if Sho hadn't been there to catch him. The rest of the members came and visited him during the day, but always only for short periods of time. None of them mentioned it but Ohno knew they were busy cleaning up some part of the campus as part of their penalty. Ohno was silently grateful for their support. The remaining three had to work even harder now that Sho was occupied with looking after him, but they had insisted that Sho should stay with him all day in case anything happens. Ohno was sure that even the best hospitals don't provide such royal treatment.

 

Ohno was feeling much better by the time the nurse came in on Monday. Sho had left Ohno in the hands of the nurse, but not before giving strict instructions on the medication and to inform him if Ohno takes a turn for the worst. Ohno's dizzy spell was mostly gone by the afternoon, and he could walk around on his own without fear of fainting. When the night rolled around and the nurse came to change his IV pack, Ohno begged the nurse to let him off the IV for a while. His worry for his teammates had returned, and he was desperate to see how they were doing. None of them had came around all day and it worried Ohno. Considering the amount of care they had showered him with over the weekend, Ohno was certain that they must have been kept really busy by their instructor, Higashiyama, or getting picked on by Kanjani8. He could only hope that it was the former instead of the latter. The nurse reluctantly agree to let Ohno take a walk, but only on the condition that he did not exert himself or try anything foolish. Ohno nodded in appreciation before speeding off to the main block to find his teammates. He grabbed his jacket and put it on on the way out so that it’ll hide the IV plug that was still embedded in his right wrist.

 

Wondering where his teammates where, Ohno decided to check out the dojo first. The bright lights and the noise Ohno heard as he came nearer the dojo confirmed that Ohno’s choice was right. Ohno stood by the door quietly as he took in the scene before him. The buckets of water and rugs at the side told him that his teammates were probably giving cleaning duties again. The Kanjani8 members were all gathered around and very rowdy. In particular, a few of them looked like they were drunk. Ohno frowned. Drinking was strictly prohibited on campus, and the Kanjani members were all elites and had no excuse for getting drunk in the middle of training camp on campus. A verbal fight had ensued and things started heating up. Sho ran out of the dojo to get help from their instructors just as a row broke up before the two groups.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! So now we know what happened to Ohno! And there was quite a bit of brotherly Yama love here ne? XD I hope you liked it!


	11. The Fight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What would happen if our five stormy boys are not idols? What would happen if JE itself is not an entertainment agency, but a spy agency instead? Come, find out with me!

The four sighed as they picked up the cleaning equipment and headed up to the dojo. Higashiyama had not been pleased when they showed up in the morning with their cleaning duty assigned for the weekend unfinished. But he had been gracious enough to let them continue the punishment in the evenings instead after hearing what happened to Ohno. They had barely finished cleaning half the dojo floor when Kanjani8 showed up, reeking of alcohol. Apparently they had smuggled sake onto campus after their weekend trip, and had gotten completely smashed after dinner.

“Why if it isn’t those losers!” Yokoyama smirked.

“What a bunch of useless weaklings! Scums! That’s what you lot are!” Uchi leered as he sent a bucket flying, water spraying out in all directions.

“Just what the fuck was that for!” Matsumoto yelled, angry at the mess that was being made in the dojo.

“You wanna try me?” Yui challenged, stepping forward to threaten Jun.

Jun bit his tongue as he took a deep breath to try and keep his cool. He could tell that Kanjani was drunk, and they were badly outnumbered. If their practice fights in training were anything to go by, picking a fight with Kanjani would be a very bad idea.

“You guys are drunk!” Nino spat.

“Say that again!” Uchi sneered as he picked Nino off the floor by the collar. Nino had been kneeling on the floor and scabbing the dojo floor when they came in.

“Drinking on campus is against the rules! I’ll see how Higashiyama likes it when he finds out what the hell you guys have been doing!” Sho yelled angrily as he ran out of the dojo through the door opposite to where Ohno was standing.

Not liking the look of things, Ohno started moving forward towards the group. The fight began abruptly when Uchi gave the defenceless Nino a hard slap in the face followed by a heavy punch in the gut, causing Nino to crumble onto the floor in pain. Ohno sprinted across the dojo floor as fast as he could, gripping the shinai he picked up from the weapons rack tightly in his hand. The illness had taken the wind out of his lungs though and Ohno could barely manage more than a jog. The sudden outburst of violence had shocked the rest of Kanjani at first, but high on alcohol induced bravery, the rest soon joined in the rumble apart from the more peace loving Nikishido and Maruyama. Jun and Aiba had rushed to try and protect Nino from the mob but they were soon getting beaten up themselves by the rest of the gang.

 

Ohno reached Nino’s side first, as he was the nearest of the lot. With a smack on the back Murakami came tumbling down. Yokoyama received a smack in the stomach with the shinai followed by a knee in the balls as he turned around to find out who was the new intruder. While Murakami and Yokoyama were caught by surprise, Uchi had time to prepare himself as Ohno smacked his teammates. Turning his focus away from kicking a fallen Nino, Uchi took up a fighting stance. The sound of Ohno’s intrusion had surprised the rest of the Kanjani members, and they stopped their fight with Jun and Aiba and everyone turned their attention to the showdown between Ohno and Uchi. Uchi aimed a kick at Ohno’s right hand, intending to disable his opponent. Under normal circumstances Ohno would have no problems dodging the attack. But he had barely recovered form his illness and his stamina had been completely sapped from taking down two opponents earlier, unable to move fast enough, Ohno took the full force of the kick on his wrist. Ohno gritted his teeth in pain. He’d completely forgotten about the IV plug that was still lodged in his skin, and the plastic plug had dug deep into his skin. Nonetheless he had been well trained, even that smack was not enough to make him release his tight grip on the weapon. His fingers could barely move after the large impact however. Ohno used his left hand to prise open his fingers and took the weapon on his left hand as he moved his feet and dodged out of the way of another attack from Uchi. Steadying his grip on the weapon, Ohno lifted the shinai with his left hand and narrowed his eyes. His strength was draining rapidly, he had to end the fight fast or else he’d be in deep trouble. His chance came immediately as Uchi made a clumsy lunge at Ohno. Ohno stepped backwards to avoid the attack, but at the same time started swinging his shinai down, aiming for Uchi’s head. He swung down with all his remaining strength and the weapon made a satisfying crack as it hit its target, and Uchi dropped like a piece of lead onto the dojo floor, knocked out cold by the blow to his head. Ohno panted hard, exhausted by the exertions. A wooden clang sounded as the shinai slipped off his limp hand and onto the floor. Ohno looked down and was surprised to see that the tip of the wooden shinai had broken off from the impact of the hit. An ugly lump was starting to form on Uchi’s forehead. Bracing himself, Ohno walked towards the dojo door, determined not to show any signs of weakness in front of the Kanjani brats. Everyone merely stared at Ohno in shock, unsure of what to do. Ohno had just stepped out of the dojo entrance when a furious Matchy came charging in with Higashiyama and Sho following closely behind.

“Ohno-san!” Sho exclaimed.

“What happened to you! Why are you bleeding!” Sho cried in alarm.

It was only then that Ohno noticed the blood that was dripping from his right hand. He turned around and looked into the dojo to see a trail of blood on the dojo floor, and his anxious teammates rushing out after him, having recovered from their initial shock. Ohno tried to lift his right hand up to inspect the wound, but his hands were trembling so badly he could barely lift it. Then, Ohno felt the strength leaving his body as he slumped down against the wall. He was vaguely aware of people yelling his name before...

 

Ohno realised he must have blacked out when he realise he was lying in bed when he woke up. Panic started raising in his chest as he realised he was not in the sickbay on campus, but in a hospital. Sho seems to have read his mind has he held Ohno’s hands and started speaking in a calming voice.

“Its alright Ohno, we’re all here, everything will be fine. Now take a deep breath...” Ohno calmed himself down when he realised that all the rest of the members were sitting in the sofa a little ways from the bed.

Nino had fallen asleep on the sofa and Aiba was poking him in the stomach and trying to wake him up. Ohno allowed Sho to adjust his pillow so that he could lean back comfortably. He tried to sit up but the sharp pain in his bones made Ohno groan. Ohno noticed that his right wrist had been bandaged and a new IV had been set up on his left hand.

“What happened?” Ohno croaked, he voice felt raw and his mouth was parched.

Sho helpfully poured some water for Ohno as the rest of the members gathered around the bed. Sho made sure his teammate was comfortably settled down before he started explaining.

“You collapsed by the side of the dojo last night. You were running a high fever so Higashiyama-san called the ambulance…” Sho explained.

“What about you guys. Nino are you alright?” Ohno asked.

Nino widened his eyes, “Yeah? Why wouldn’t I be?”

Ohno coughed as he continued “You were getting kicked like a soccer ball last night…”

“Ah that…” Nino replied as his face turned red in embarrassment.

“I’m fine, just a few bruises… they didn’t actually kick that hard…” Nino replied.

Sho nodded in agreement. "Yeah, no broken bones and no internal bleeding, he'll be fine."

"That'll teach him not to slack off during physical training though..." Jun chided, making Nino wince.

 

They stopped arguing immediately though, when Ohno took a sharp breath and had an obviously pained look on his face.

"Ohno-san are you alright?" Sho asked as he got up to check on Ohno.

"Arghs bone hurts..." Ohno muttered.

"Ne Ohno-san... hate to tell you this but... you're down with dengue fever, so the pain could last for a while... I'll go get the doctor" Sho said apologetically before leaving the room.

It was a good 20 minutes before the doctor finally appeared. He gave Ohno a thorough examination before giving him strict orders to rest, and drink as much fluids as possible. Ohno nodded obediently as he sank back to the bed, exhausted. The pain came in waves, and seemed to attack different parts of his skeletal system each time.

"How long will I have to be hospitalized?" Ohno finally plucked up the courage to ask his most dreaded question.

"That'll depend on how fast you get over the dengue. It differs in every patient, but considering how you were already badly dehydrated... hopefully everything will go fine and you can go home in say... a week?" The doctor smile warmly in encouragement but the words still sounded cold and piercing to Ohno. Something about the way the doctor said it made Ohno feel that he'd be extremely lucky if he could make it home in a week.

 

"Can't I go home any earlier?" Ohno whined after the doctor left. Sho shook his head before replying Ohno firmly

"No. Do you even know you dangerous your situation now is?" Ohno looked at Sho blankly, waiting for an explanation.

Sighing, Sho explained "Fluid balance is the key to treating dengue fever. In your case however, you were already suffering from heat exhaustion and dehydration, making the likelihood of your illness worsening to dengue hemorrhagic fever and subsequently dengue shock syndrome higher."

Four blank faces were staring at Sho.

"What that means is, we need to closely monitor your condition and you need to cooperate with the treatment, otherwise it'll get much worst. Dengue shock syndrome can even be fatal..." Sho continued.

While the four didn't know what hemorrhagic fever or shock syndrome meant, they certainly understood the word fatal. Sho shook his head in disgust.

"How can you guys know know about this? Especially Ohno... you've been with the Agency for so long... don't they teach you guys this stuff?" Sho asked.

"Not really..." Ohno shook his head in embarrassment.

"Hmm..." Sho mused... that was something he'd like to do about. Once they aren't so busy with their physical training that is. Ohno soon drifted off to sleep, but only after he'd made the members promise that they'll still be around when he wakes up.

"Sure, as long as its not midnight by the time you wake up or something. We need to sleep too you know..." came Nino's bratty reply, earning him a nudge in the ribs from Jun. Before Nino could complain about the pain cos Jun had nudged him right in his bruise, Jun had dragged him out of the room to give Ohno some peace and quiet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! Some action at last! I hope you liked it! This is a late post I know! But in my defense I was busy with the subs! Triple release weekend hohoho!
> 
> PS: Sorry if there are any K8 fans! But its totally K8 VS Arashi here and it'll stay that way for... quite a while I guess! XD This is just a fic so don't take it too seriously ok!


	12. Hospitals

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What would happen if our five stormy boys are not idols? What would happen if JE itself is not an entertainment agency, but a spy agency instead? Come, find out with me!

The four decided to take a stroll in the hospital garden, since they was nothing much else they could do in the hospital. Sho sighed as they walked through the quiet gardens. It was a rather extensive garden, but there wasn't a single soul there.

"Such a waste of a garden" Aiba commented as he pointed at the beautiful fountain that was surrounded by flowers. "Its so beautiful yet there's no one to enjoy it."

Sho shrugged.

"It's a hospital, what do you expect Aiba? Everyone from the doctors to the nurses are running around like crazy to keep up with the daily influx of patients..."

"Don't the nurses always push the patients out on walks in dramas?" Aiba pouted.

"In dramas." Sho corrected.

"Last I check this isn't a drama set though. Maybe in nursing homes the patients might get walks and stuff. If they have adequate staffing that is. But hospitals? Dream on." Sho said while shaking his head.

They walked trice around the garden before they finally decided to have an early dinner. The sun had only started setting as they went back to the ward. Ohno was woke up the moment they walked into the room.

"Sorry! Did we wake you up?" Aiba asked anxiously.

"Nah," Ohno sighed. "The nurse just woke me up to give my medication. And that..." Ohno pointed to a cup on the side table. Sho picked it put and inspected the contents. "

Unn, you need to drink more fluids" Sho nodded as he made Ohno drink another mouthful before putting the cup down. Ohno's stomach had still not recovered and he wasn't able to drink much, hence the need for the IV.

 

The nurse came in with the dinner and Ohno looked at the food with a dejected look.

"I'm not hungry..." He said weakly.

"It doesn't matter." Sho replied gently "You have to eat ok? You need the energy to recover... It's alright even if you throw it up, but just take a few mouthfuls ok?" Sho removed the plastic wrap from the bowl of porridge before helping Ohno sit up.

Ohno picked up the spoon and tried to feed himself, but his right hand started trembling so badly that he dropped the spoon in alarm.

"Must be the knock I got yesterday..." Ohno said as he picked up the spoon with his good hand.

Sho frowned.

"The doctors examined your hand yesterday and everything seemed in order. But you were unconscious though so we don't know for sure..." Sho replied as he picked up Ohno's hand and pressed it in several areas.

Seeing that Ohno was not in pain from the probing he shrugged.

"Could be just the large impact and the fact that you're still weak. If it gets painful or anything you have to let us know ok?" Sho said.

Ohno nodded obediently as he ate the porridge. The room fell into an awkward silence as they watched Ohno eat.

"Must you watch me eat like this?" Ohno asked, "Its embarrassing!" The rest chuckled in response except for Sho.

Unable to hold it anymore, Matsumoto blurted out "Sakurai-kun, are you alright?"

"Hn?" Sho turned around and looked at Jun as Jun continued "You look so upset. In fact you've been upset the whole day."

"Ah..." Sho sighed as he buried his face in his hands.

"I don't know...", Sho sighed.

Jun put an arm over Sho's shoulder and comforted the doctor.

"Go on" Jun encouraged.

"I don't know." Sho took a deep breath before continuing.

"I don't know if I did the right thing then. I mean, he could already been showing signs of dengue then but I didn't realize... I should have checked especially knowing that he came from India but I didn't...", Sho whispered.

"It's alright." Ohno said, taking Sho's hands in his.

"I'm still alive ain't I? I'll be fine... in any case it was my own fault for not wanting to go to the hospital anyway..." Ohno confessed, embarrassed at his own phobia.

"Why are you so afraid of hospitals anyway?" Nino took the chance to ask the question that had been on his mind for a few days now.

"I..." It took Ohno a while before he finally decided to tell his past to the rest.

"You guys must promise me not to tell anyone alright?" Ohno said.

They nodded and waited for Ohno to began his story.

"What did you guys know about it anyway?" Ohno asked.

Sho told Ohno about what he heard from Kinki. Ohno nodded.

"Well I guess SMAP didn't break their promise then." Ohno replied with a wistful sigh.

"SMAP? You mean the SMAP with Kimura-kun inside?" Aiba asked, eyes widening in delight.

"Yes Aiba-kun, there's only one SMAP in the entire Agency for goodness sake..." Nino exclaimed, rolling his eyes.

Jun helpfully explain Aiba's relationship with Kimura to the confused Ohno before Ohno continued with his story.

"It happened a long time ago. When I was just 14. It was the third and last time I ever worked with SMAP. And also my third mission too," Ohno began.

 

Ohno had been sent undercover to a tough neighborhood in the outskirts of Tokyo. There had been an increase in drug pedaling in the area, and the drug dealers were engaging the help of teens to do the drug delivery. Ohno's mission had been to get himself recruited as a delivery boy to infiltrate the drug dealer's organization. Everything had gone smoothly at first. Nakai posed as Ohno's brother and they both moved into the neighborhood. Ohno managed to get acquainted to the other delivery boys, and eventually push his way into the doors of the gang. Things took a sudden turn though when one night a rival gang from Tokyo came to look for revenge. The rival gang also trafficked drugs, and they alleged that Ohno's gang were stealing their business. An all out fight soon broke out and the police were called in. Ohno had been taught martial arts and been told to run to safety at the first signs of trouble, but luck was not on his side. No one had expected the rival gang members to be armed, since the possession of firearms were strictly regulated in Japan. But unfortunately they had managed to get their hands on a pistol and some bullets, and even more unfortunately, the first bullet that was fired ricocheted off the wall and went straight into Ohno's thigh. Crippled by the wound, he was unable to run or defend himself and ended up with a variety of cuts and bruises before the police came and broke off the fight.

The mission was considered a small one and there were only 3 men assigned to the mission - Nakai and Ohno, with Higashiyama working in the background as the mission coordinator. Since Ohno spent all his time hanging out with the gang members, that left Nakai to do all the housework. Nakai had been unfortunately out to do grocery shopping when the fight broke out and was of no assistant to Ohno. In fact, it was Higashiyama who first heard of the fight breaking out and both men rushed to the scene. However by then, the police had cordoned off the area and arrested the gang members.

Things only went downhill from then for Ohno. The police were not informed of Ohno's undercover activity and he was treated like a common criminal. Owing to his gunshot wound, he was taken to a local hospital for operation, but right after the operation ended, while Ohno was still groggy and barely awake from the anesthesia, he'd been transferred to the prison hospital and placed under strict security surveillance. Gang fights rarely broke out in Japan, and such a huge fight, with illegal firearms at that, had caused a huge commotion in the police force. Drastic security measures were being taken, and Ohno found himself handcuffed to the hospital bed with two burly policemen watching over him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Gomen for taking so long to post this chapter! Subbing, work, and laziness got to me!


	13. Helen of Troy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What would happen if our five stormy boys are not idols? What would happen if JE itself is not an entertainment agency, but a spy agency instead? Come, find out with me!

Ohno's injury and subsequent arrest caused a huge headache for the Agency. The Agency was a lot more secretive in the past, and as a result, had much lesser connections - simply because no one knew that such an organization exists. Worst still for Ohno, amongst those few who knew of the organization, none of them had been told that there was an underage agent in the Agency, working on missions. The official government approval when the Agency was first set up years ago was that agents had to be at least 18 years old before they were allowed out on missions. The agreement had became outdated and obsolete, but it was Johnny's mistake that he did not draw up a new agreement with the government. So the Agency ended up having their hands tied behind their backs. It didn't help that the incident had drawn a huge interest from the media and journalists surrounded the prison grounds, hoping to get their hands of whatever juicy piece of information. That meant that even if the Agency could secure Ohno's release, it would be a while before they could get him physically out of the hospital. As it turns out, the whole procedure took a grand total of two weeks. Close to ten days of discussion and negotiations with the higher ups, and then coming up with strategies on how to work around the local police and prison wardens, followed by making sure that a suitable story gets out to the media so that no one will go looking for a pair of brothers that in actuality never existed. Arrangements for transport had to be carefully made to prevent the local media from getting a whiff of what was happening, and it was a good 15 days by the time Ohno found himself back in the familiarity of the Agency hostel grounds. Most of his wounds had healed by then, with the exception of the deeper and more serious gun wound. Nonetheless, the incident had Ohno badly traumatized. It was not in fact the injury that haunted Ohno, but rather the prison hospital treatment. He was handcuffed to the bed at all times and the handcuffs had left his wrists bruised and bleeding. Even though the guards had the decency to change which hand Ohno gets cuffed to every now and then, it didn't help because he tossed and turn in his sleep from fear, and each time he woke up from his brief naps to find new bruises on his hands. And the reason for the troubled sleep? The poor medical care he received. He was not allowed to get up from the bed, and had to use the bedpan. But Ohno was housed in a single cell bed. Which means that there was no curtain in the room, and Ohno had to go while being stared at by two nurses and two policemen. The rest of the circumstances were just as bad. Fearing drug abuse by inmates, the doctor was very stingy on pain medication prescriptions, and the lack of human interaction took its toll on Ohno. No visitors, the nurses and the body guards were not people who made small talk - well it was a prison after all, only that Ohno shouldn't be there. Ohno vehemently hate all things medical after that incident. It had taken the Agency's medical team a good three years to even convince Ohno to go for his scheduled medical checkups. And it was only a further two years later that Ohno was able to pass the basic first aid course, and that happened only after Johnny had threatened to sack him from the Agency.

 

Ohno was not the only one affected by the incident though he bore the blunt of the consequences. Johnny stepped up and rigged better relations with the top officials in the government, especially those in defense and security. He covered the Agency back front and inside out with strings to pull for whatever situation that may arise, in order to protect his precious agents. The Agency also filed complains on the prison hospital for negligence and failure of duty to treat their patients with proper and appropriate care, and through his newly build relations Johnny made sure that the prison hospital head was sacked. Eventually lawmakers caught on and imposed stricter regulations on the operation and security of the prison hospital. Stricter controls and rules on mission procedures were also implemented to prevent a repeat from occurring. Others in the Agency who knew about the incident referred to Ohno as the 'Helen of Troy' for his role in causing the huge sweeping changes that was brought to the Agency.

 

Nakai was not spared either. He was chastised by both the Agency and Higashiyama for not looking after Ohno. Even though Ohno had insisted that Nakai would not have been of much help considering the violence involved in the gang fight, Nakai still received a one year suspension as punishment. All attempts by Ohno to make peace with his senpai failed. Relations between the two had been sour ever since, and a war of words was bound to ensue whenever the two met.


	14. Conversations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What would happen if our five stormy boys are not idols? What would happen if JE itself is not an entertainment agency, but a spy agency instead? Come, find out with me!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the insanely long wait. I'm coming to the end of my pre-written and pre-edited text so... I don't think the rest of the chapters will be fast either... gomen!

“It's just... I mean, Nakai wasn't really to blame. But it was just the circumstances and everything didn't turn out right..." Ohno mumbled as he came to the end of his lengthy explanation.

The rest were still reeling from Ohno's confession. The members barely knew about Ohno after all. Even the knowledge that Ohno had in the Agency for so long now came as a shock to them.

"Wait... you joined when you were 13???!" Nino exclaimed in disbelief.

"Un-huh..." Ohno nodded, clearly embarrassed.

"You've been in the Agency for 10 years already???" Nino continued, unable to contain his surprise.

"Now that's some freaking screwed up cool shit!" Nino gulped.

"To think that you've been in this for so long already... and you're not even that much older than as...!" Nino shook his head as he recalled the physical display of prowess he had witnessed yesterday.

"I don't mean to be rude but... how come you've not been put in a group till now?" Jun asked tactfully.

Ohno merely shrugged.

"I was almost put into V6... thankfully that didn't happen though…"

"You don't like the people in there?" Aiba asked.

"Nah… it's just... you know... the age gap is kinda big. Makes it a bit awkward I think.”

Mutters of true and I sees were heard throughout the ward.

"And there's no other group you could be put into?" Aiba quipped.

Sho answered the question for Ohno, "If I recall the 'Introduction to the Agency' handbook correctly, KinKi's the newest group formed and the only one after V6... I hardly think putting Ohno in with the Domoto brothers would be appropriate.”

They'd all heard gossips of how close the KinKi Kids were - despite most of the rumors being highly exaggerated, there was no denying the close knitted relationship between the duo.

Ohno shrugged, "Yeah the only group that came out since then was KinKi. There's those Kanjani brats that's around my age, but we don't exactly get along very well... Johnny doesn't recruit all that many people in the first place, and many of those recruits drop out before long. You guys getting recruited together with so many others only happened because of the government quota…"

"Quota?" Aiba asked.

"Remember the Sarin Gas attack?” Ohno asked.

The rest nodded. The Sarin Gas attack in 1995 had been the most horrific terrorist attack in Japan since the second world war ended. While the death toll was only 13, the chaos that wreaked through Tokyo was unprecedented. The emergency services were ill-prepared to handle such a large scale emergency, and the government subsequently demanded for major reforms to be made.

"So this quota thing is part of the reform?" Aiba asked.

"Yeah... they set a target for the Agency to increase manpower to prevent such incidents from re-occurring. I'm guessing this new temporary group thing is part of Johnny's response to the new regulations..." Ohno explained.

The rest nodded in agreement, now everything seemed to make more sense.

 

"Say... do you know if we'll be able to become a proper group some day?" Sho asked hesitantly, the idea of becoming a proper Agent in a proper group never far from his head.

Ohno shrugged, "That depends on Johnny-san really. He might even put us in completely different groups later on for all you may know.

"EH! You mean we'll get broken up later???" Aiba protested in shock.

Despite all the set backs that they had at the training camp, Aiba had already grown to love the rest of his teammates.

"Maybe... It's all up to Johnny-san. Maybe he'll let us stay together though... But knowing Johnny he'll probably give us a test of some sort that'll we'll have to pass before he gives his stamp of approval…” Ohno explained.

"And if we fail the test?" Sho asked.

"At best we'll be sent back to training and given another chance. At worst we'll all be sent packing." Ohno replied nonchalantly. "You can never guess what the old man is thinking.”

"Is he really that bad?" Nino asked.

"He... gets mood swings I guess..." Ohno replied carefully.

"Wait a minute..." The observant Jun asked. "How come Kanjani gets a name then but they're not a proper, official group kind of group?”

"They are a junior group." Ohno explained, "Recruits to the Agency can either be regular recruits like you guys, or they can be junior recruits like Kanjani, who join the Agency when they are 16 or so and undergo special training programs. Johnny puts those recruits into junior groups to motivate them and teach them values like team work and stuff... and if things goes well they will eventually become a proper group. But juniors come and go all the time, and there was a bunch of changes to the group already before you guys joined.”

"Ah... so they've been in the Agency for much longer... so that's why they are so much better at everything" Aiba lamented, earning him a 'don't tell me you didn't know that' look from Nino.

"Yeah... of course they're good, it’s their second time going through that course after all." "Eh??? You can go through the course more than once?" Sho asked.

"No wonder they knew about the tunnels!" Jun lamented.

"Yeah, you can keep doing it. More like, you are made to keep doing it until you pass with a good grade.”

"Really??" Sho winced, considering their previous performance, they would definitely be made to repeat the training course.

"Of course each time Higashiyama or whoever's in charge will change and tailor the contents to suit the students... so every time something is different and you won't get bored.”

"Ne Ohno-san, so how many times have you done the camp?" Jun asked.

"Ah that... I've... I've..." Ohno stuttered, his face reddening up in embarrassment.

"I've been through the course six times already…"

"WHAT? SIX! YOU MUST BE LYING!" Nino yelled, and Jun had to remind him that he was in a hospital before he would shut up.

"Yeah... the first time I joined TOKIO when they just received their group confirmation status. More like tagged along maybe, because they were much older and I had only joined the Agency and barely knew anything... then I went again when V6 did, twice too, Higashiyama made them repeat because they teamwork the first time round was non existent... after that I was asked to join with Kinki, as well as a few other juniors who later left, simply to make up the numbers. Then once with Kanjani, initially Johnny wanted me to work with them, but after the camp decided that it was never going to work out... and then the last time I dropped in with the new juniors because I had no mission and was bored… I didn’t exactly join in all their activities every single time though. I was kind of just, coming and going as I please…” Ohno said.

“Wow! Coming and going as you please? You actually got to pick if you wanted to take part or not???” Aiba exclaimed, his eyes wide is shock.

“Yeah I was kind of… the senpai among the juniors after all.. and I guess… they did give me a lot of freedom, maybe more than what I deserve….” Ohno’s voice trailed off and he recalled all the times he was simply napping in his dorm, or drawing while the rest were slogging it out in training.

Maybe that was the reason the Kansai kids hated him so much. He was always the exception. He had never thought of things that way before, but now maybe he could see the reason why he was always an outcast among the juniors. There were those who were down right afraid of him, and those who were jealous and were not afraid to show it, those he had recognised long ago. And then there were those like the current members of Kanjani8, who downright hated him to the core, despite the fact that he had never done anything to insult or offend them. But maybe, to the Kanjani members, Ohno excelling at everything effortlessly was an offence in itself. Compared to how hard they were working. Ohno worked hard too, but he preferred to do it away from the prying eyes of others, that and the fact that Ohno started off much earlier than Kanjani made it seem like he was simply talented.

"Eh but... 6 times? Isn't it a bit... excessive?" Sho asked, breaking Ohno from his thoughts.

"Kinda... but then I had nothing better to do anyway that's why I joined. It's more interesting than regular training after all… Plus I was still underage, there were not that many missions that they were willing to send me on…"

"Interesting? Are you nuts?" Nino retorted.

"At least you get to beat people up regularly... and there's those paint ball fights and simulation rounds fights too!" Ohno smiled as he recalled the time when he'd gone up against Okada of V6 in a paint ball fight, and the newbie recruit had ended up being covered head to toe in paint while there wasn't even a single splatter on himself.

Nino winced as he shook his head regretfully, "I guess its only fun when you can actually beat the crap out of everyone…"

In the last paint ball fight they had, Nino had ended up with 26 painful bruises, which was a mere 16 more than the average the rest received. The curious members questioned Ohno about previous experience a little more. However it was getting late then, and the four of them left to allow Ohno some rest, but only after they had promised that they'll visit him the next day.


	15. Second Chance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What would happen if our five stormy boys are not idols? What would happen if JE itself is not an entertainment agency, but a spy agency instead? Come, find out with me!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heave ho! Anchors ahoy! I finally bring you a new chapter! Wakakakaka.

Ohno was tired out from the discussion the day before and spent the following day sleeping and waiting for his teammates to come. He was glad that he shared the story with them though. It took a load off his chest, and that together with the caring nurses helped a lot with his anxiety of staying in a hospital. He smiled at nurse as she came to change the dressing on his wrist. Maybe it was time to overcome his phobia once and for all. The incident had happened a good 9 years ago after all, and now he was mature and grown up. The spacious private room he was staying in and the cheerful nurses was different enough from the prison hospital that Ohno didn't have to try hard as nothing there reminded him of the prison stay.

 

Ohno was chatting with his mum when Johnny came with the other four members in tow. Knowing that Johnny must have important things to discuss with her son, Ohno-san thanked the boys for taking care of her son and left. Johnny got down to business as soon as the door closed.

"What have I always told you about watching your health and knowing your own limits?" Johnny scolded, clicking his tongue in annoyance.

Ohno fliched, he'd been expecting a scolding from Johnny about his lack of judgment, but he hadn't expected to be scolded in front of his teammates like this. His face reddened in embarrassment. That was definitely not a good way to start off as a leader...

"Instead of going straight to the hospital after landing in Japan you had to play hero and take a 3 hour ride to the camp, as if blacking out once wasn't enough, you had to show off once again and 'rescue' your teammates. Just look who's the one in need of rescuing now!”

"But it was Kan..." Aiba jumped in to defend Ohno, but was promptly cut off by Johnny.

"Shush! I've heard enough of what Kanjani did and that's a different matter! Ohno should have known better than to start a fight with them in this state! I have already sent Kanjani packing and they will get their punishments... In any case the training camp is now canceled. Ohno-kun, as a punishment, and to teach you more about responsibility, you will be suspended from all further missions.”

Ohno winced and started to raise a protest, but Johnny held up his hand as he continued, "You have much to learn about leadership, and more to learn about your team members. You've gone through the training camp more times than anyone else in the agency, hence the reason why I let you continue your solo missions while your team mates are being trained, but it turns out to be my mistake. From now onwards you will focus all your attention on training your team. Do whatever training you think fit at the main campus. If you want to use the camp grounds or have any special activity you'll need to go through the usual approval routes. I'm sure you know them well enough by now?”

Ohno closed his eyes and took a deep breath before he finally nodded, he'd helped out Higashiyama and other senpai instructions on various occasions before, and they had taught him the proper procedures, including the safety evaluation that needs to be carried out before an activity could be approved. However, that didn't mean that Ohno was ready to do sort of leadership. Leadership wasn't his thing, but no matter what he said, Johnny never seemed to get it. On hindsight however, Ohno should have expected something like that to be coming. There had to be some sort of reason for Johnny to be sending him through the training camp so many times after all. And getting him to join his grand seniors in various meetings. Johnny had been training him to be a leader all along, he just didn’t know it then.

"I don't give a damn what you do, you can bum around all day if you like, though I have heard from Higashiyama than you guys are one of the most physically challenged recruits he has ever seen…"

"Eh? We don't have to report every week?" Ohno asked in surprise.

"Report or not I don't care anymore! You are all grown ups now. You're not kids anymore! Ohno you are a full fledged agent yourself," Johnny said as he turned towards Aiba and Jun, "And both of you have been through the police academy already!"

Johnny give the four members a glare, "Half a year of training and you guys are still such pathetic weasels! Even my junior recruits can do better than that!" Johnny spat, causing the four of them to shrink back in fear.

"Did the announcement last year get into your heads? You're not even official yet! And there are no shortage of junior groups like you guys now! This year I have decided to make things more interesting, the best performing team will be made official. In the team games I mean, which is in July... that's roughly 6 months from now. You've been in the agency for 10 years Ohno-kun. The board has never liked it how you skipped the medical training and fitness tests, but they let you stay because you were young and you were good.”

"But that was a long time ago," Ohno protested. "I've been going for my medicals…"

"Since last year yes." Johnny continued, leaving Ohno's face flushed red with embarrassment.

"You collapsing from a mission could be more than enough reason for the board to boot you, you know, for your own safety reasons." Johnny narrowed his eyes as he looked at his protege.

"I expect to see a stellar performance from you guys in July or that'll be the last I ever see of you!" Johnny said sternly.

"I'll leave you to decide what to do with your members." Johnny said as he gave a cursory wave.

Then he turned to Sakurai and said, "You'd better darn well make sure he doesn't overwork himself again!”.

"Yes sir!" Sho replied with a determined look in his eyes.

Sho heaved a big sigh as he sat down on the sofa besides Ohno's bed together with the rest of the other three members. He didn't like the situation they were in one bit. He looked at the other four members. Things certainly didn't start off right with them. But if there was anything Sho was good at, it was making things work. And putting aside all the differences they had, when it came right down to things, Sho wanted to make things work. He needed to make things work. Even if for the sake of no one but himself. He could not imagine the kind of humiliation he would be in if he got kicked out of the Agency. Maybe that was what made him so competitive that he forgot the basics about teamwork in the first place. Thankfully, Johnny had essentially given them a second chance to start over. And this time Sho would do things right. He let his mind wander back to the meeting with Johnny they had earlier in the day...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi all! So it's been a whooping 3 years since I posted a new chapter. I've not forgotten about this fic, in fact, quite the contrary. It just takes me a loooonnnnggg time to process where I want to move with my chaptered fics and such...
> 
> I'll get around to completely it eventually... Though you might see more short chapters. Or something. 
> 
> Thanks for reading!


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